I know I?m going to be very unpopular for saying this but it is actually healthier for your baby to have lots of small meals than a few large ones. And most babies know this instinctively and ask for lots of small meals. So most young breastfeed babies ask for milk at night. And there is nothing medically wrong with this.
Occasionally a mother can get the baby to drink more during the day by using breast compression ? but often babies don?t like this as they get too much milk at once and this can cause chocking problems. Dr. Jack Newman web site has details of breast compression at
http://www.breastfeedingonline.com. There are also videos of the technique at
http://www.breastfeedingonline.com/newman.shtml under the heading Breast Compression.
The ways I found the best to cope with disturbed nights were to breastfeed lying down. This allowed me to get rest if not sleep while I was feeding the baby. And to sleep when the baby slept ? this is hard because I always had loads of other things to do!
Sometimes I would be very tired after a night of disturbed sleep. On these occasions I?d take a sick day off work or ask someone else to take the baby out and sleep. It is amazing how much better I felt with a sleep of just a couple extra hours. This wasn?t something I had to do every day, or even every week ? more like once a month or once every six weeks but it really helped.
Also if I was too tired in the evening I?d ask my husband to look after the baby and I?d get an extra hour or two before he and the baby came to bed. Again this wasn?t something I had to do every night but it helped when I did do it.
I also think it helps to remember the benefits of the baby waking up at night. You are much less likely to have milk supply problems if you baby wakes at night then if she were to sleep through. Also the baby is less likely to die from SIDS if she wakes up a lot. And your infertility from breastfeeding is much more likely to continue if the baby is waking up a lot. This has health benefits for the mother ? less likely to get anaemia, less likely to get pregnant quickly and so less likely to have complications in your next pregnancy.
It is our society and our bottle feeding culture that expects babies to eat large meals and sleep for long periods. Other cultures don?t expect this. The !Kung San of the Kalahari desert in Southern Africa breastfeed frequently and intensively, "giving the breast about four times an hour during the day and several times at night for at least the first two years of life." They would worry if their babies had long feeds and slept for long periods.
What I?m hoping to get across is that if both you and your baby are happy and healthy it really don?t matter what the feeding or sleeping pattern is like.